While speaking about the Black Panther Party (BPP) to college students in a
Black American literature class, I was reminded once again that the
establishment news media, historians, and political scientists have not provided
a full treatment of the BPP. The students (of various ethnic backgrounds) with
whom I spoke were surprised yet pleased to learn that the Black Panthers fed
hungry children, escorted senior citizens to banks to cash their checks,
administered a model elementary school, and tested people for the rare blood
disease, sickle cell anemia.[1] Unfortunately, these community service
activities lacked the sensationalism of the gun battles between police and BPP
members. Not surprisingly, the only recollection of the BPP for many of the
students was the Party's confrontations with law enforcement officials.
Heretofore, the Panther survival programs have received minimal popular and
scholarly attention.

First, this essay addresses the theoretical underpinnings of the survival
programs. Secondly, the specific projects constituting the survival programs are
described, and finally the essay assesses the impact of the survival programs.
From 1972 to 1981, as a member of the Black Panther Party and the last editor of
The Black Panther Intercommunal News Service, I participated in many of the
various survival programs and knew the importance of these service projects to
their recipients. It is hoped that this essay proves useful to contemporary
young African American activists.

Panther activism extended to health concerns as well. Members of the BPP
sponsored three major programs to address the lack of adequate health services
in the Black community. Health related survival projects included free health
clinics, sickle cell testing, and a free ambulance service. Since the Party's
health programs required medical workers and equipment, the health projects were
not as plentiful as some of the other survival programs. One of the first
efforts to implement Chairman Seale's 1969 directive to institute free health
clinics was undertaken by the Kansas City, Missouri branch of the Black Panther
Party, which opened the Bobby Hutton Community Clinic on August 20, 1969. Soon
afterwards Party branches in Brooklyn, New York, Boston, Cleveland,
Philadelphia, Seattle, Chicago and Rockford, Illinois, created free health
clinics. Although medical cadres in the Party received first aid training, the
survival of the health clinics depended on health professional workers, such as
Dr. Tolbert Small of Oakland, to donate their time. The health clinics offered a
variety of services which included first aid care, physical examinations,
prenatal care, and testing for lead poisoning, high blood pressure, and sickle
cell anemia. An exemplary Party health clinic operated by the Panthers was the
Spurgeon "Jake" Winters People's Free Medical Care Center established in January
1970 by the Illinois chapter of the BPP, which "served over 2,000 people within
the first two months of its existence."[35] Medical teams from the Winters
clinic went door-to-door assisting people with their health problems; the
clinic's staff included obstetricians, gynecologists, pediatricians, and general
practitioners.

Sickle cell anemia testing was another major health community service program
offered by the Black Panther Party. Panthers were at the forefront of an
educational and medical campaign to eradicate sickle cell anemia, a rare blood
disease that primarily affects people of African descent. In a front-page
article in The Black Panther, entitled "Black Genocide, Sickle Cell Anemia," the
Party accused the United States government of refusing to conduct research to
find a cure for sickle cell anemia. Five weeks after the publication of this
article, the BPP announced that its medical clinics would begin free testing for
sickle cell anemia and the sickle cell trait. The Jake Winters Medical Center
conducted the Party's first sickle cell testing in May 1971, testing about 600
children in a three-day period. In Houston, Texas, the BPP trained Texas
Southern University (TSU) students and community residents to perform testing
for sickle cell anemia, hypertension, and diabetes. According to David Hilliard,
Chief of Staff of the BPP, the Party "established nine free testing clinics,
publicizing the problem so successfully that [President] Nixon mention[ed]
sickle cell in that year's health message to Congress.”[36]

The Joseph Waddell People's Free Ambulance Service, established in early 1974
by the Winston-Salem, North Carolina branch of the BPP, was another health
venture of the BPP. Panthers in Winston-Salem were granted a franchise by the
Forsyth County Commissioners and financed their ambulance service with a grant
awarded by the National Episcopal Church. It included 24-hour service with a
voluntary staff of twenty certified members who received extensive emergency
medical technician training. The ambulance service operated for two years.”[37]

Educational Programs

From the Party's inception, its leadership attacked what it considered to be
a biased and distorted educational process. Hence, the demand for a relevant
education was explicitly stated in the organization's ten-point party platform.
Specifically, point 5 of the BPP Platform stated: "We want education for our
people that exposes the true nature of this decadent American society. We want
education that teaches us our true history and our role in the present-day
society."[38] The BPP sought to overcome the problem of substandard education
with the creation of liberation schools, community political education classes,
and the Intercommunal Youth Institute. As early as 1969, the various affiliates
of the Black Panther Party instituted liberation schools. Members of the
Berkeley branch instituted one of the first liberation schools on June 25,
1969.[39]

According to chairman Bobby Seale, liberation schools taught children "about
the class struggle in terms of black history."[40] The lesson plans of these
schools included presentations on Party activities, Black history, and current
events. Students usually received breakfast and lunch during their attendance of
the liberation schools, which "were an outgrowth of the interaction with
children of the F.B.P. [Free Breakfast Program]. Frustrated with the lack of
time to talk with children, many Panthers were eager to establish liberation
schools.”[41] Unfortunately, government officials were sometimes successful in
convincing community leaders and parents not to cooperate with the Party.
Consequently, in some cities, including Omaha and Des Moines, the school program
was discontinued. The Party's community political education classes were the
educational counterpart for adults. In addition to listening to lectures about
the Party's ideology goals and activities, community adults were taught basic
reading and writing skills.

The key educational component of the Party's Survival Programs was the
Intercommunal Youth Institute. In January 1971, the Oakland chapter established
the Intercommunal Youth Institute (later named the Oakland Community School in
1974). According to the Party, the school was established because "we understand
clearly that those who can control the mind can control the body. What we have
is an educational system which is completely controlled by the power structure."[42]
At the beginning, there were twenty-eight students in the school, many of whom
were the children of BPP members. Students, ages 2½ to 11, attended the
institute. They were placed in levels instead of grades, and their placement was
made according to their abilities rather than age. Therefore, a student might be
in a fourth-level math class but in a first-level English or reading class.
Meals were provided and buses transported the pupils to and from school as well
as to medical and dental appointments. During the fall of 1973, the Youth
Institute was housed in a former church in East Oakland's predominantly Black
community. The school graduated its first class in June 1974. At one point,
there were 400 children on its waiting list. Ericka Huggins served as the
director of the school from 1973-1981. In September 1977, California Governor
Edmund "Jerry" Brown Jr. and the California Legislature gave Oakland Community
School a special award for "having set the standard for the highest level of
elementary education in the state."[43] The last class graduated from the
Oakland Community School in 1982.

Criminal Justice Programs

The 1966 version of the BPP ten-point Party platform included two demands
concerning the United States criminal justice system. Point 8 demanded, "We want
freedom for all Black men held in federal, state, county, and city prisons and
jails." In a similar vein, Point 9 demanded, "We want all black people when
brought to trial to be tried in court by a jury of their peer group or people
from their black communities, as defined by the Constitution of the United
States."[44] In the early days of the organization, the Party informed community
residents of their constitutional rights. Early issues of The Black Panther
included a column authored by Huey P. Newton entitled "Pocket Lawyer of Legal
First Aid," which noted,

[Black people] are always the first to be arrested and the racist police
forces are constantly trying to pretend that rights are extended equally to
all people. Cut [the "Pocket Lawyer"] out, brothers and sisters, and carry
it with you ... at all time [sic] remember the fifth amendment ... Do not
resist arrest under any circumstances ... Do not engage in "friendly"
conversation with officers."[45]

For a time, the BPP newspaper also included a section that explained state
and federal gun laws.

Established in Seattle, Washington, in July 1970, the Party's free busing to
prisons program provided transportation for families and friends to visit their
relatives who were incarcerated in prison. Seattle BPP members recalled, "We
found out that many families and friends cannot afford transportation to these
prisons to visit their loved ones. The result is that the prisoners feel that no
one even cares about them ... It [the busing program] gives a chance to
establish some type of communication between the community and the prisoners."[46]
This program was one of the first survival projects in which I personally
participated after joining the Detroit branch of the BPP in 1972. I drove one of
the vans that transported families to visit their incarcerated relatives at
Jackson State Prison. Having grown up as the sheltered daughter of a minister
and a music teacher, I was overwhelmed by my experience at Jackson State Prison,
which was my first visit to a penitentiary. Another service that the BPP
provided for prison inmates was the free commissary program. BPP members secured
donations of personal hygiene items and nonperishable foods and sent care
packages to prisoners. The Party also offered attorney referral services for
prison inmates.

Legacy of the Survival Programs

Sociologist Herbert H. Haines has suggested that the activities and rhetoric
of Black power groups like the Black Panther Party provided a "positive radical
flank" for Black progress. According to Haines, Black radicals of the '60s
improved the bargaining position of mainstream civil rights groups, which
hastened the accomplishment of many of their goals.[47] There is evidence
that the Black Panther Party's survival programs contributed not only to the
improved bargaining position of civil rights groups, but for all poor people in
America. First, in the area of police-community relations, the Party's
police-alert patrols educated the public about police brutality. In Oakland,
California, the Panthers increased public awareness about the role and actions
of the police. A Citizens' Complaint Board to hear allegations of police abuse
was established by the Oakland City Council in 1981—fourteen years after the
BPP launched its community patrols of the police.

Contemporary incidents of police brutality, the Rodney King case among
others, demonstrate that police abuse of African Americans continues.
Nonetheless, today, unlike the 1960s, "three strikes and you're out" is the
prevailing public attitude toward criminals. This attitude is perhaps
understandable, given the rapid growth during the last decade in the sale and
use of crack cocaine and its attendant violent crime. Given the contemporary
situation, the Black Panther Party's call in 1966 for the "immediate" release of
all Blacks in prisons and jails would understandably draw little support.
Nevertheless, the Party's observations that Black and poor people are not tried
by a jury of their peers and that crime and poverty are inextricably linked
remain correct.[48]

The BPP’s breakfast program and food give aways also raised public
consciousness about hunger and poverty in the United States. The precursor to
the present free school lunch program, the Party's free breakfast for children
survival program was a popular community service activity. Indeed, Panther
activism provides a model of community self-help. Finally, in the area of
education, the Black Panther Party established the Oakland Community School in
1971 as an alternative to the substandard education foisted upon the city's
low-income and working-class children. However, Oakland, California, must not be
singled out. Then, as now, public education is in crisis throughout the United
States, particularly in large, urban school districts. Notwithstanding the
sincere efforts of parents and teachers to improve education, urban schools are
often abandoned. Is it not possible to create Oakland Community Schools
throughout America?

More than thirty years have elapsed since Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale
founded the Black Panther Party. Despite the passage of time, however, the
Party's quest for "land, bread, housing, education, clothing, justice and peace"
remains elusive for far too many Black and poor people in America. Consequently,
in recent years there has been a renewed interest in the Black Panther Party,
particularly by African American youth. Several former Panthers have written
books about their experiences, young artists have "rapped" about the Party, and
a major motion picture on the BPP has been produced.[49] What are our
young people, who are searching for role models, to make of the sometimes
contradictory accounts of the Black Panther Party?

Above all, it must be remembered that the BPP was an organization comprised
of young African Americans from diverse social and economic backgrounds.
Moreover, Party affiliates throughout the country possessed distinct organizing
styles and programs based on the qualities of the local membership and the
particular needs of their respective communities. What happened in one chapter
of the Party did not necessarily occur in the same manner in another chapter.
Furthermore, members of the Black Panther Party were young men and women, many
in our teens and twenties. There were, undoubtedly, times when members of the
BPP romanticized the Black liberation struggle. As a result, we seriously
underestimated the apparatus of the state in the most powerful country in the
world. Moreover, we did not always operate democratically and sometimes failed
to grasp fully the imperatives of leadership.[50] Lastly, but certainly
not least, the BPP was the main target of the FBI's counterintelligence program
to destroy the entire Black power movement.[51] The pervasive government
repression directed against the Party affected all aspects of organizational
life. It developed an atmosphere of mistrust and personal danger among the
membership. In the end, the Panthers sought to transform powerless Black and
poor people into powerful, political individuals in their attempt to actualize
the motto of the Black Panther Party "All Power to the People." As Huey P.
Newton recalled,

We knew that this strategy would raise the consciousness of the people
and also give us their support ... revolution is a process ... we offered
[the programs] as a vehicle to move [the people] to a higher level ... In
their quest for freedom ... they have to see first some basic
accomplishments, in order to realize that major successes are possible.[52]

9. United States Senate, Final Report of the
Select Committee to Study Government Operations with Respect to Intelligence
Activities, S.R. No. 94-755, 94th Congress, 2d Session (Washington, D.C.,
U.S. Government Printing Office, 1976), 200-207, which hereafter will be
referred to as The Church Committee; Huey P. Newton, "On the Defection of
Eldridge Cleaver from the Black Panther Party and the Defection of the Black
Panther Party from the Black Community," The Black Panther Intercommunal
News Service, 17 April 1971, C-F.

14. Huey P. Newton, Revolutionary Suicide (New
York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1973). Reprint, New York: Writers and
Readers Publishing, Inc., 1995), 114-115, 120-126, 146-147; Bobby Seale,
Seize the Time, 153-166. In April, 1967, a California legislator, Donald
Mulford, introduced legislation to change a gun statute in California. This
bill was designed to disarm the BPP and end its police-alert patrols. On May
2, 1967, Bobby Seale led a group of Panthers to the California State Capitol
in Sacramento where he read the Party's "Executive Mandate No. 1," a
statement written by Huey, upholding the right of blacks to arm themselves
against "terror, brutality, murder and repression" by "racist police
agencies."

15. Bobby Seale, Seize the Time, 139. 16. Ibid.,
136.

17. Ibid., 139.

18. Black Panther Party, "Whole Earth Catalog,"
19. The dates of the six week period were August 21 to October 1, 1972.

19. "Seniors Against A Fearful Environment," The
Black Panther, 16 December 1972, 3 and 11; "S.A.F.E. Wins Victory for Senior
Citizen Home," The Black Panther, 26 January 1975, 4. Elaine Brown, A Taste
of Power: A Black Woman's Story (New York: Pantheon Books, 1992), 321-327;
Rod Bush, ed., The New Black Vote, Politics and Power in Four American
Cities (San Francisco: Synthesis Publications, 1984), 323-325; and the
following articles in The Black Panther: "Unite to Defeat Reading" and "Bobby
in Run-Off," 21 April 1973, 3, A, B, and C; "A People's Victory May 15 in
Oakland" and "The People's Political Machine Victors," 3 and A, 19 May 1973.
On April 17, 1973,ín a field of four candidates, Bobby Seale forced the
incumbent mayor of Oakland, John Reading, into a run-off election. Defeated
by Reading on May 15, Bobby nevertheless won a respectable 40 percent of the
vote. Elaine Brown lost her race for Oakland City Council, but garnered over
34,000 votes. The Seale-Brown campaign registered over 30,000 new voters in
Oakland, paving the way for the election of the city's first Black mayor,
Lionel Wilson, in 1977.

22. United States, House of Representatives,
Committee On Internal Security, The Black Panther Party: Its Origin and
Development as Reflected in Its Official Weekly Newspaper, The Black Panther
Black Community News Service, 91st Congress, 2nd (Washington, D.C.: U.S.
Government Printing Office, 1970), 15.

25. Ibid., 214-215. Also see Seale, Seize the
Time, 179. Describing the purpose of its study of the Black Panther Party in
the preface of the report, the Committee on internal Security stated, "to
determine its origin, history, organization, character, objectives, and
activities with particular reference to certain aspects set forth in the
committee mandate." The mandate included investigations of groups "which
seek to establish a totalitarian dictatorship within the United States, or
to overthrow or assist in the overthrow of the form of government of the
United States or any State thereof." United States, vi. House of
Representatives, Committee on Internal Security, The Black Panther Party:
Its Origin and Development as Reflected in Its Official Weekly Newspaper,
The Black Panther Black Community News Service. 91st Congress, 2d Session.
Washington, 1970, vi. For information about incidents of sabotage against
the BPP newspaper, see "Repression of the Black Panther Newspaper," The
Black Panther, 8 August 1970, 11.

26. Abron, "Raising the Consciousness of the
People," 357; "The Government Murdered My Sister at Jonestown" and "People's
Temple `Hit List' Exposed As Fake," The Black Panther, 29 December 1978, 3.
People's Temple was founded by the Rev. Jim Jones, who died at Jonestown.
The BPP had developed a close relationship with the People's Temple, whose
community programs for the poor in San Francisco and northern California
were much like those of the Party. Charles Garry, a long-time attorney for
the BPP, was also the attorney for the People's Temple. The BPP believed
that People's Temple members, voluntarily moved to Guyana to flee racism and
poverty in the United States which the Party considered a serious indictment
of life in America. Also see Michael Meirs, Was Jonestown a CIA Experiment?
(Lewiston, NY: Emellen Press, 1988).

27. Father Earl A. Neil, "The Role of the Church
and the Survival Program," The Black Panther, 15 May 1971, 11.

28. JoNina M. Abron, "Women in the Black Power
Era: Lessons for the 1990's from the 1960's," paper presented at the "Black
Women in the Academy, Defending Our Name: 1894-1994" Conference, Boston,
Massachusetts, January 1994.

29. Bobby Seale, Seize the Time, 414.

30. Ibid., 413-414.

31. Foner, ed. The Black Panthers Speak, xiii.

32. The Church Committee, 210-211; see also
Charles E. Jones "The Political Repression of the Black Panther Party
1966-1971: The Case of the Oakland Bay Area," Journal of Black Studies 18
(1988): 415-434.

35. Kit Kim Holder, "History of the Black
Panther Party," 112; Jake Winters, a member of the Chicago BPP, and two
Chicago policemen died during a shootout on November 13, 1969. See Kenneth
O'Reilly, "Racial Matters": The FBI's Secret File on Black America,
1960-1972 (New York: The Free Press, 1989), 311.

36. David Hilliard and Lewis Cole, This Side of
Glory: The Autobiography of David Hilliard and the Story of the Black
Panther Party (Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown and Company), 339; Black
Genocide: Sickle Cell Anemia," The Black Panther, 10 April 1971, 1; "The
People's Fight Against Sickle Cell Anemia Begins," The Black Panther, 22 May
1971, 10; "BPP Trains Houstonians for Free Medical Testing Program," The
Black Panther, 22 June 1974, 5.

37. "Winston-Salem Free Ambulance Service Opens,"
The Black Panther, 16 February 1974, 3. Joseph "Joe-Dell" Waddell was a
member of the Winston-Salem, North Carolina, branch of the BPP. On June 12,
1972, he was pronounced dead of a heart attack at Central Prison in Raleigh,
North Carolina. His fellow inmates believed that prison authorities gave
Waddell drugs to induce heart failure; Also see Mario Van Peebles, Ula Y.
Taylor, and J. Tarika Lewis, Panther: A Pictorial History of the Black
Panthers and the Story Behind the Film (New York: New Market Press, 1995);
The Black Panther, 16 February 1974, 3.

43. The Oakland Community Learning Center
offered a variety of educational and recreational programs, including G.E.D.
classes and martial arts classes. Various community groups in Oakland, such
as the Black Veterans Association, also met regularly at the OCLC. See "O.C.L.C.'s
2nd Annual Martial Arts Friendship Tournament Huge Success," The Black
Panther 29 January 1977, 23. Elaine Brown, A Taste of Power, 391-394. Former
BPP member Carol Granison and I wrote the curriculum for language arts and
the Oakland Community School. I also taught at the school from 1976 through
1981; "Address of Deborah Williams At First Intercommunal Youth Institute
Graduation Exercise," The Black Panther, 22 June 1974, 2. Also see "S.O.S.:
Win $1000 in `Support Our School' Donation Drive," The Black Panther, 2
April 1977, 3; Elaine Brown, A Taste of Power, 439.

44. Huey P. Newton, Revolutionary Suicide,
117-118.

45. Ibid., 157-159.

46. See the following articles in The Black
Panther: "People's Free Busing Program," 8 August 1970, 9 and "Behind the
Walls," October 1-14, 1979, 8-9. According to Elaine Brown, "The Black
Panther Party provided a voice and a hope for thousands of black inmates."
See Brown, A Taste of Power, 315-316.

49. In addition to Elaine Brown, among the other
former BPP members who have written autobiographies in recent years are
David Hilliard (with coauthor Lewis Cole), This Side of Glory; Akua Njeri
(formerly Deborah Johnson), My Life With The Black Panther Party (Oakland,
CA: Burning Spear Publications, 1991), and Assata Shakur (formerly JoAnne
Chesimard], Assata, An Autobiography (Westport, Conn.: Lawrence Hill &
Company, 1987). Some of the rap artists who have performed material about
the `Black Panther Party are Public Enemy and Tupac Shakur. The 1995 film Panther—a fictional account of the BPP's early
days—was based on a
screenplay written by Melvin Van Peebles and directed by his son Mario. See
Mario Van Peebles, Ula Y. Taylor, and J. Tarika Lewis, Panther.

50. For discussions of the structure and
decision-making process of the Black Panther Party, see Brown, A Taste of
Power, 319-321 and 443-447; and Hilliard and Cole, This Side of
Glory,
224-225, 246-247, and 250-251.

52. Huey P. Newton, "On the Defection of
Eldridge Cleaver from the Black Panther Party and the Defection of the Black
Panther Party from the Black Community," The Black Panther
Intercommunal News Service, 17 April 1971, C-F.